VENUS IN FURS

There's something about fur that completes an outfit like nothing else can. In these days real fur is considered in bad taste. So now the demand for faux fur has increased, and advances in the technology of making simulated fur has gotten to the point where it can accurately replicate mink, fox, leopard or cheetah. These faux furs not only look great but are made so that the fibers have the texture of the real thing. And they not only provide a clear conscious, but you can now buy a faux mink coat for $900 where the real thing can cost $10,000.

In the Golden Age of Hollywood the wearing of furs in movies signified luxury and glamour. This was mimicked in society too, and from the 1930s through the mid 50s, no woman felt she had arrived unless she had a fur coat, stole, or wrap.

Jean Harlow knew how to pose with a fur. Photo from Photofest

Fur made the perfect contrast to the shiny surfaces provided by gowns made with bugle-beads and sequins. This contrast also worked with sheer fabrics, as is shown by Jean Harlow above. There is something primordial about the attraction of fur, it is sensed beyond just the visual.

No one seemed to wear a fur as well as Marlene Dietrich. Above she is shown with Herbert Marshall in Blonde Venus, a title that applied well to her. Dietrich's costumes in the movie   were designed by Travis Banton. Both he and Adrian used the fur wrap and slanted cap to devastating effect. In Adrian's case it was with Garbo and Joan Crawford. Their beautiful faces peeking out from a frame of fur and felt was simply stunning.

Joan Crawford in Paid, 1930.

The beaded gown below shows the perfect contrast of fur with glistening silver bugle beads.
Ginger Rogers wears the Bernard Newman design in Follow the Fleet, 1936.

The image of glamour enhanced by fur was so prevalent that even in the movies a daydream of the glamorous Hollywood life required the wearing of fur. Below Greer Garson has such a fantasy scene in Her Twelve Men, 1954, designed by Helen Rose.

And Marlene, our Blonde Venus, was wearing her furs well into the 50s. She is shown below in No Highway to Heaven in 1951.

       Photofest 

The rich and famous were still wearing furs too. Shown below is a scene from The Rich and Famous, 1981. Candice Bergen wears the complete outfit from the film co-starring Jacqueline Bisset, with costume design by Theoni Aldredge.

       Photofest

And today our fashion runways are again dotted with furs, faux furs to be sure. A model shown below wears a faux fur at the Prada show in Milan this past February. It was one of many faux furs on the fall fashion runways.  The look was purposefully not glamorous. Perhaps this was done to make the furs more approachable for the young.

Faux is better than no.